Personal computers and the Internet greatly enhanced communications and access to information from around the world. Typically, visual information is displayed upon a monitor screen and data can be added or manipulated via keystrokes upon an associated keyboard. Feedback is provided visually to the user by the monitor screen. Blind users cannot utilize the information appearing upon the monitor screen while visually impaired users may experience difficulty doing so. Accordingly, screen readers have been developed to assist blind and visually impaired users when they use a personal computer. One such screen reader is JAWS® for Windows.
When installed upon a personal computer, JAWS® provides access to the operating system, software applications and the Internet. JAWS® includes a speech synthesizer that cooperates with the sound card in the personal computer to read aloud information appearing upon the computer monitor screen or that is derived through communicating directly with the application or operating system. Thus, JAWS® provides access to a wide variety of information, education and job related applications. Additionally, JAWS® includes an interface that can provide output to refreshable Braille displays. Current JAWS® software supports all standard Windows® applications, including Microsoft Office XP®. JAWS® has two cursors available to assist the user when he is using a Windows® application, the PC Cursor and the JAWS Cursor. The PC Cursor is linked to the keyboard functions of Windows® applications and used when typing information, moving through options in dialog boxes and making a selection of a particular option. Thus, as each key is pressed JAWS® causes the speech synthesizer to recite the letter corresponding to the key or the name of the selected option. The JAWS Cursor is linked to mouse pointer functions in Windows® applications to provide access to information in an application window that is beyond the scope of the PC Cursor. As an example of the JAWS Cursor, as the user maneuvers the mouse pointer over a tool bar, JAWS® causes the speech synthesizer to recite the name of the particular toolbar button that the pointer is over.
Additionally, JAWS® supports Internet Explorer with special features, such as, links lists, frame lists, forms mode and reading of HTML labels and graphic labels included on web pages. Upon entering an HTML document via an Internet link, JAWS® actuates a Virtual PC Cursor that mimics the functions of the PC cursor. The Virtual PC cursor causes JAWS® to signal the speech synthesizer to speak the number of frames in a document being read in Internet Explorer and the number of links in the frame currently being displayed. Also, JAWS® causes the speech synthesizer to read graphics labeled by alternate tags in HTML code.
Typically, such prior art speech readers have presented information to the user serially. This requires that the user wait for some of the data to be processed. However, it is known that the human brain can process multiple simultaneous information sources. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a screen reader that could deliver information for multiple sources simultaneously to reduce data processing time.
Various objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, when read in light of the accompanying drawing.